LinkedIn is a brilliant social media platform used for connecting with others. What’s different about LinkedIn compared to other platforms is that it is specifically for your career – so not having a LinkedIn profile can actually be a big disadvantage for you in the job market. Nowadays, many of the job postings you find on career sites can also be found on LinkedIn – not to mention you can directly search, connect, and interact with companies and people who you admire or are in your field of work. It is a much more personalized way of finding and attaining the connections you need. It is modern day networking.

With that said, it is crucial you have a killer LinkedIn profile. After that, you can start your job search and use LinkedIn to propel your career forward. To get you started, we have put together the 5 top ways you can use LinkedIn for your job search.

1.       Follow and interact

The first step (after having a killer LinkedIn profile) is to actually interact on LinkedIn. Just like with any other social media platform, it is key to make meaningful connections, follow people and companies you admire, and interact. Interacting can mean looking at people’s profiles, (did you know that when you look at someone’s profile they can see who you are?), liking or celebrating a post someone uploaded, or commenting your opinion on the many different discussions that happen all over the platform. This way, people will notice you, see what you like, and can more easily find you. It’s a numbers game – the more people see you, the better chance you have of the right person finding you.

Another way to interact is to post yourself! This may seem intimidating with all of the big companies and smart people, but you don’t need to feel less-than! Posting could mean putting up a funny work-related meme, a question you want to ask people, or an article you wrote on your blog. You can even re-share something that one of your connections posted. What’s great about LinkedIn is that if someone reacts to your post, all of those persons followers will see your post and their reactions. So even with a very small amount of interactions, you have access to a large amount of people on the platform. Who knows what recruiter or person might find you and lead you to your next job opportunity.

2.       Post your work & accomplishments

This goes hand-in-hand with the first point, but LinkedIn is a great place to showcase your work! Whether you are in school and want to upload a thesis, or post about a new certificate you received – this is the place to do it. Bragging on LinkedIn is not frowned upon, in fact, it is encouraged! And you should use this platform to showcase everything you are working on. Here are some different topics you can share:

·         A training you successfully completed

·         An award you received

·         A school thesis or project you worked on

·         A certificate you received

·         A new opportunity at work

·         A promotion

Recruiters and your connections want to see your success, and with success comes people noticing you – which is the goal if you are searching for a new job.

3.       Let LinkedIn know you are open

There is a function on LinkedIn which you can set up in your profile that allows you to either let recruiters know that you are looking for a job, or any of your connections see you are open and looking for a job. Here is how to set it up:

• Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.

• Click View profile.

• Click the Add profile section button to the right of your profile photo.

• Click Intro.

• Click Looking for job opportunities.

• Provide the requested information in the pop-up window that appears.

  You can choose whether all LinkedIn members or only recruiters can see that you’re open to job opportunities. If you choose to share with all LinkedIn members, LinkedIn will add an #OpenToWork photo frame to your profile pic.

• Click Add to Profile.

Please note that if you choose ‘only recruiters’ to see you are open, it is not 100% guaranteed that someone else won’t see it. Just keep this in mind if you are at a company where it could cause issues if they know you are looking for a job.

Otherwise, this gives LinkedIn members and recruiters the confidence to reach out to you and let you know about certain job opportunities that you might have otherwise missed out on.

4.       Set up job searches

Not only can you search for jobs on LinkedIn (you can do this by clicking the “Jobs” tab at the top of your LinkedIn page) but you can also set up job alerts for yourself.

Above all else, we highly recommend doing this. Once you enter a job title you want to look for and the city or region, press “search” and there will be a bar on the top left-hand corner, which says “job alert on”. You can turn this on or off, and also include more filters such as key words, experience level, or date a job was posted. What’s great about this feature is that you can set up several different jobs that you want alerts for, and LinkedIn will send you notifications either in the app or via email with every new job that fits the description! So all you need to do is spend some time figuring out what jobs interest you, then LinkedIn does the rest. You can easily browse through the jobs they send you, and see which ones you like or don’t like. You can also go back and edit your saved job searches if you feel you aren’t getting jobs that are relevant. This is a great way to look for jobs without having to do so much legwork.

5.       Easy apply

Once you found a job that you like, you can easily apply! LinkedIn has a great “Easy Apply” feature for many of their jobs, which is a much shorter version of a job application. This means that once you apply for a job and upload your resume, LinkedIn will store that resume and you can use it for any further job posts you apply to. This makes it really easy and convenient to apply – even on your phone when you are on the go!

Although this is a great feature, I do recommend having different resume versions for different jobs. For example, a Team Leader resume might focus more on leadership and team cohesion whereas a project management resume should including topics like time management or agile ways of working. We always recommend having a few different resume versions so you can easily alternate between them depending on what job you apply for. Just a hot tip.

Hope you found this post helpful! For 1-1 career coaching or help with your LinkedIn, contact us here or at doubletake.lifestyle@yahoo.com.